Pacific Islands Police Chiefs meet in Wellington

Tackling domestic violence and trans-national crime will be discussed by Pacific Islands Chiefs of Police when they meet at their conference in Wellington this week.

Police Chiefs and their delegations from 18 Pacific Island countries and territories are attending their 36th annual conference which this year is being hosted by Niue, with assistance from New Zealand. Member nations range from the Commonwealth of the Northern Mariana Islands in the north, New Zealand in the south, French Polynesia to the east and the Republic of Palau - who hosted last year's conference - to the west.

The three-day conference, which will be chaired by Ross Adern, head of Niue Police, starts tomorrow at 8am following a traditional welcome. Commissioner Adern is a member of the New Zealand Police who is currently seconded to Niue.

Superintendent Tony Annandale, executive director of the Pacific Islands Chief of Police (PICP) Secretariat, said the conference theme 'Future Directions' has three main strands - ethics/integrity, capacity building and regional cooperation.

Discussion items to fall out of these include recruiting, initial and advanced training issues, policies and procedures that support ethical behaviours, skills development and mentoring for member police services. The Chiefs, their delegates and regional partners will also be talking about domestic violence prevention programmes in the Pacific, drug trafficking, other trans-national crime issues and regional cooperation.

"The Pacific Oceans covers one third of the world's surface," Superintendent Annandale said. "Many of our PCIP members are little places dotted in that huge expanse of water. They are small policing services who can't afford every 21st Century crime fighting tool. Strengthening our regional cooperation across the Pacific helps develop the smaller services and reduces the opportunities for organised crime to make inroads in our communities."

Conference deliberations will form the basis for ongoing work in the region.